A Winter week
by HeraldHealer
Summary: Pregame, Pre Crazy Sephiroth, not particulary graphic. Ties into Kin to the Turks but can stand alone think of it more as a prequel. What If Sephiroth had loved...


Keyala scowled eloquently at the Shinra convey in the winding it's way through the valley. Late afternoon light streaming in the window made her almost black brown hair shine with a hint of red. Her fingers tightened on the window sill leaving indentations on the wood. "Took them long enough," she growled to herself.

"Took who long enough?" Liz asked curiously. Keyala turned regarding her younger cousin. The two shared the same coloring: lustrous dark brown hair, dusky complexions, and piercing violet eyes. They had similar builds, or at least six year old Liz's build was similar to Keyala's when she was the same age slender with surprisingly well defined muscles for a child. Keyala was a tall, willowy, with young woman of nineteen. "Who?" she asked again impatiently.

"The Shinra," Keyala replied tersely. "I thought I told you to practice your staff work." Liz squirmed her way in front of her cousin to get a view of the convey. "I did for a full hour, and I'm tired. Can we stop for today?"

Keyala checked her watch, "Wow, time flies. I'll call Aunt Deb, there's no way for me to get you home before sundown."

About an hour later Liz and Keyala sat eating sausage and peppers over brown rice, one of Keyala's specials. "I thought you didn't want the Shinra to be called," Liz remarked around a mouthful of rice."

Don't talk with your mouth full," Keyala admonished playfully. "If I let get in the habit when you get home your mom will get me." She shuddered "Aunt Deb is so scary when she gets mad." Liz nodded in solemn agreement. "I don't want Shinra anywhere near here." Keyala told her cousin. "It's my job to protect this land and these people."

"But the monster got you too when you tried to fight it," Liz pointed out. Keyala sighed. She didn't dare explain to Liz that Mako reactors drained the life force out of the planet or what the Shinra did to the people who dared to point that out. The kid had yet to learn discretion. "If they were going to show up they should have while I was still hung up. My arm's totally healed that took two month, Liz. I could go back to hunting on my own now."

Liz started to say something then paused to finish chewing a mouthful of peppers. "Why did they only send one truck? Dose that mean they sent SOLDIER?"

"Probably, Either that or they aren't taking us seriously. I don't know which would be worse, arrogant idiots who I could defeat blindfolded without my glave, or arrogant professionals who could fight me to a standstill. Anyways I have to guide them, as the only Ranger left."

Keyala deposited her sleeping cousin in her own home before she walked into town. She reached the mayor's house and knocked on the door. She waited nearly five minutes for an answer. Impatiently she banged on the door. "It's me, Keyala!" she shouted. "I'm not the beast!" She almost fell in the door as the mayor pulled her in the door and bared it behind her, struggling to get the heavy bar back into the slots.

The mayor, a thin nervous man, sighed wringing his hands. "The Shinra aren't here yet."

"Calm down," Keyala snapped. "It's barely seven o'clock in the morning. I saw the convey at the bottom of the valley yesterday evening." She cocked her head to the door as the truck rumbled into the square. "Sounds like they just arrived."

Three Shinra MPs climbed out of the truck were followed by one young man in the standard SOLDIER uniform. Keyala appraised the young man from the mayor's porch. His armor was new and shiny, as was the gunblade he carried. _Even if his eye's have the Mako glow, he can't have been in SOLDIER for more than a week or two. He swaggers like a rookie,"_ she thought. Then Sephiroth descended from the truck, there was no other way for the graceful, if deliberate way he moved. _Ye Gods, both ends of the spectrum: ne-han rookie and a master a year my junior._

Sephiroth gazed around the town with thinly veiled contempt, windows and doors bared against the rampaging monster. "S..sir," the thin nervous man, stuttered "I, we didn't expect the honor of your presence." Sephiroth momentarily ignored the man as he sized up the young woman who stood behind him. He took in every detail in a glance: long dark hair pulled back into a business like braid that fell to her hips, well worn boots, loose rusty gray martial arts pants, loose forest green shirt, and a tight brown leather tunic displaying a streamlined figure. Her posture signaled that she was very familiar with the use of the glave and bow she strapped to her back. He cut off the babbling Mayor off with a gesture. "Where's the monster's range?" he asked keeping one eye on the young woman. "I'm not sure--" The young woman cut him off. "It ranges mainly around the north face of Mt. Cray. Unless it's extended it drastically in the last six days the range includes approximately twenty miles south of the village."

"I take it you're to be our guide," Sephiroth stated. The woman nodded curtly. "Good, sooner the monsters dead sooner we can leave."

"I'm ready to leave when you all are," the woman tersely. She opened her mouth to say more when a shriek and a distinct "You leave my brother alone, you big ugly beast!" Swearing with laudable creativity, she charged bring her glave to bear and sprinted around the corner. Sephiroth reached the seen the instant she did the younger SOLDIER who carried the gunblade caught up about a second later. He saw a young girl with similar coloring as the young woman whack the creature on the snout with a staff. The gunblade wielding SOLDIER shot at the beast and ran up slashing its throat. The thing fell to the ground bleeding life. The woman rushed past him and grabbed the girl and her brother, and sprinted to a house. She stopped in front of the door as it opened and thrust both kids into the arm of a very annoyed looking woman. "Aunt Deb, 's monster," she said and the woman shut the door and barred it with alacrity.

"What's the rush?" the young fighter asked mockingly. I killed the monster didn't I?" he turned his back on the creature. "Fool!" the woman shouted "It's not dead!" the creature rose a bloody wreak and gouged him in the back bringing him down. Sephiroth moved with lightning speed and pulled the young one out of range and called the Fire3 spell completely obliterating the thing. The woman sheathed her glave and knelt beside the young man. "Looks like it got the spleen," she muttered. Turning to the ordinary Shinra fighters she barked, "Get the Doctor! Third house on the right!" The MP's looked at her shocked that she was giving them orders. Sephiroth nodded at them, and then they got the doctor.

Keyala finished washing her hands after the surgery, relieved that it was over. The man would probably make it even if his fighting days would probably be limited. But she detected some trace of taint in his blood stream, like a black stain the doctor couldn't see. It felt familiar to her but she didn't quite get how or why.

Sephiroth had begun to get on her nerves. _"I've never met anyone so cold in my life. No, that's not true either. It is true but it's not what bugs me. What bugs me is the almost automatic condescension in his manner." _She turned to dry her hands on a cloths letting them bathe in her silver energy to eradicate any possible lingering taint careful to shield this from sight.

"He'll live," the doctor was telling the Shinra MPs who had clustered around the bedside: Sephiroth was leaning on the door frame arms akimbo. "If he'll ever fight again, who can tell? Keyala, preferably, I would have you watch his bedside since you're everything but a certified nurse. But I understand that in this case that is not an option."

She nodded. Turning to face everyone she said, "I don't recommend starting out today to look for the monster."

"What?!" one of the MP's burst out. "That was a juvenile, believe me if that was it, I would have finished it off long before the Mayor saw fit to call you gentlemen. The problem is mama, not her latest cub." Keyala snapped. "Are you certain?" Sephiroth asked some subtle under current or inflection in his voice making her stiffen with anger. "Beyond all shadow of a doubt," she almost snarled. "Now if' you'll excuse me I have arrangements to make for tomorrow." She strode past him and out the door, bristling. He moved to stop her but she slipped through his grasp with an effortless grace that startled him. "I suspect this is going to be a long hike," he remarked as he watched Keyala stalk down the stairs.

To his surprise Keyala stopped on the landing, and turned to face him. "You have no idea," she commented dryly. Then she was gone. _She's fast, faster than anyone else I've ever met. I wonder if her strength matches her speed._

After about three days in Keyala's company Sephiroth developed a grudging respect for Keyala's hunting and tracking skills. He began the trek at a grueling pace leaving the village as soon as the first hints of predawn light the day after the rookie SOLDIER had been injured. He ordered the MPs to remain behind since they would obviously be useless out in the wood. He had found Keyala waiting for him attired the same as the day before with a small rolled light pack resting on the small of her back. She retaliated by increasing the pace once they got into the deep woods.

The two of them had just finished off the last of the creatures brood, when Keyala looked at the sky and swore. "What is it," he asked her, noticing that the temperature of the air had begun to drop drastically. "Snow storm on the way," she replied scowling at the sky. "It looks like it could be a blizzard. We've got to get to shelter." She took off down the path away from the village.

"Isn't the village the other way?" Sephiroth asked pointedly, as the first flakes fell. "We're too far away to make it, before it whites out," Keyala replied. "We have a better chance of getting to the way station."

The snow storm picked up speed with a ferocity that Keyala had never seen before in her life. The snow accumulated on the ground with alacrity, and what little that didn't blew around until she could barely see. She dashed on for twenty-five nervous minutes before she found the way station. For the last few minutes she thought they were lost but she sensed more than saw her way across the clearing and managed to get to the door of the way station. She stopped so suddenly in front of the door that Sephiroth plowed into her. With numb fingers she threw the latch and the two of them tumbled into the opening. Sephiroth quickly pushed the door shut and barred it against the wind plunging the room into darkness. Keyala grabbed a flash light from a hook on the wall. The tiny room they were was filled from floor to ceiling with fire wood. Shivering she opened the second door and grabbed an armload of wood. Without a word Sephiroth took the wood from her and built a fire in the fire place, igniting it with the fire1 spell.

Kira surveyed her surroundings after she shut the inner door. She lit the oil lamp and hung it from hook on the ceiling then turned off the flashlight to save the batteries. She knew this station very well. She had made certain it was well stocked with supplies. "We need to get into dry clothes," told him briskly as she pulled out a chest and found the towels right where she left them. Now that she had stopped running she felt the cold bite into her core, even in the relative warmth of the way station. She tossed a pair of trousers and a shirt to Sephiroth and grabbed a set for herself. "These belonged to my father and brothers; they should fit you as well." She looked at him askance and then added "I won't watch if you don't if you don't." he nodded curtly and turned his back and began to undo his coat.

_"There is something about that woman that gets under my skin,"_ Sephiroth thought to himself. _"And I wish to hell I knew what it was. Perhaps it's because she assumes I'm her equal. She has no idea the extent of my power, probably."_ Keyala had taken charge automatically and it was true that she had done the exact same thing that he would have done but it still annoyed him. In the course of an hour the he had exchanged maybe eight terse sentences with her. He watched idly as she toweled the last of the moisture out of her long dark hair. He stood up and stretched. "When is it likely for the weather to break?" he asked. She shrugged "It could very well go on for the next few days. It wouldn't be unheard of if the storm goes on for a full week." "Good God, It's only the last week in October." Sephiroth drawled. Keyala inclined her head ironically and replied "Welcome to the Mountains." Hanging the towel to dry beside her clothes, she took a sip of her tea pulled a face and shuddered. "It's your own fault for putting all that honey in there," he told her pitilessly. She drained the mug and put it aside. "I knew it was going to be cloying," she replied. "But I needed to warm my core and I needed to replace calories; that was a fast way to do both." Sephiroth turned taking stock of food supplies. Some one had furnished the station with a considerable amount of dry goods-- flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, shelf stable milk, powdered milk, instant soup packets, dried and canned meat, oats, cornmeal--and cases upon cases of ramen. "it looks like there's food enough for about a month and a half," Sephiroth told Keyala. She nodded and commented, "Unless you'd prefer to start in on the ramen, I ought to start in on cooking some kind of dinner about now." Sephiroth considered for a moment and shrugged "Well your cooking can't be any worse than Shinra rations."

Keyala sighed the dinner had been good; she put together a chili and made corn bread in a cast iron skillet. Even Sephiroth had admitted it was good. While the backhanded complement annoyed her she realized that "I've had far worse," was the closest thing to a thank you she was going to get from him. Efficiently she scrubbed and dried the dishes. There was no leftover food, between the cold and amount of Calories the two of them had burned getting to shelter, all of it was eaten. Keyala gazed into the flames. "We've the food to out last a blizzard, even if we do have to eat the ramen" she told Sephiroth. "What worries me is the amount of fire wood we have. If the temperature outside keeps dropping we could easily run out of wood. As Sephiroth turned to face her she couldn't help noticing the grace in his movements. "How long do you think the wood will last?" he asked mockery gone from his voice. "I would guess maybe a week," she replied seriously. "Storm's around here can last for that long. If this is a secession of storms we could be in trouble." " We need to conserve heat," he stated and began to bank the fire. Keyala pulled out every blanket, sheet, and comforter, and proceeded to make the bed in the corner near the fire place using every trick she knew for keeping in warmth.

Keyala came away slowly awake. She felt a warm back against hers. _Fully clothed both of us _she thought. _He didn't make any moves on me good thing because I'd of kicked his balls flat if he tried. His heart beat is slow, slow as mine. Why did I notice tha?._ She stretched and went back to sleep lulled by the warmth.

Three days later Sephiroth was feed up with Keyala's presence; her competence and automatic control annoyed him. As far as he could see she had all the personal discipline and skill of a professional fighter, and an elite one at that. But she seemed content in this back water hunting the strange creatures that roamed the forests. If she had been in SOLDIER he probably wouldn't have been bothered by her manner. _For all her skill and beauty she has no drive. She could be my equal if she joined SOLDIER, but she's so cocky._ He got up. The storm had abated some and there looked like there might be an hour before more snow started up. The two of them had gathered a staggering amount of wood during a lull in the storm which had knocked down dead branches some of which looked big enough to be small trees. Chopping the wood was a chore the two of them finished easily though they both showed off shamelessly. The firewood would easily last for about three weeks. "I'm going out," he said abruptly rising. "The temperature's dropping, again," Keyala pointed out mildly. "I don't care," he half growled. "Fine," she snapped, "you'll make a truly lovely ice statue." Sephiroth saw an opening and mentioned something he had over heard in the village. "I doubt it, Ice Maiden." Keyala rose instantly and punched him square in the jaw knocking him into a wall to his surprise. The weapons remained in the anteroom safely out of reach, or else the room would have painted with blood. "Don't you dare call me that," she hissed dangerously. "I'll call you what I will," he replied and counter attacked. For nearly three hours the two fought and wrestled with no clear winner. Finally exhausted, Keyala began to laugh, startling Sephiroth, who was just as weary as she. "Your skill is as I expected," she told him, using the formal way to complement an opponent. "Never in my life have I ever fought anyone whose strength is equal to my own. Not once, not even my father or brothers when they were alive." Sephiroth stared at her. "You're the first person who's been able to keep up with me for years," Sephiroth acknowledged in return. "Will you accept a truce?" he asked her extending his hand. She paused and took it "Certainly, I don't think the building will be able to survive if we go another bout," she told him eyes dancing with mirth. "Just as well our weapons were out of reach. I'd hate to fight you when you're being serious." Sephiroth chuckled, a deep rumbling purr, "The same applies to you, Keyala. And I can think of something I'd far rather do than fight you." "And that would be what, Sephiroth?" she asked, her voice rich, musical, and sensual. Sephiroth only smiled and gave her a long deliberate kiss. When they parted he smirked "That." A blush rose on Keyala's face. "Oh, that, um, yes I think I prefer that, too," she blushed even redder to Sephiroth's amusement. She put her hand to her burning cheek then raised the other and touched his face. "And darling, you're just as red as I am," she told him pulling him close into another kiss.

Keyala grunted in pain when the inevitable happened. She started felt his mind brush hers at a level deeper than though. She felt his pleasure and he felt her pain. "Keyala what's wrong?" he asked concerned his long silver hair forming a veil between them and the world. "Nothing, only it hurts girls the first time. Don't stop the pain will pass." And the pain did pass; their shared pleasure buoyed the two of them into a private paradise.

Her first lucid thought on waking was _torrath, bondmate. We complete each other. I see a side of Sephiroth that none will ever see. But why do I have such a strange foreboding?_

Although the snow storm lasted another eight days the Keyala and Sephiroth found that time passed all too quickly. When Sephiroth finally asked Keyala why wasn't in SOLDIER she laughed sardonically. "Because, Darling, I am elite and proud of what I am. I am a Ranger, one of the last of a dieing breed. My people have guarded this place since time before memory, and I am duty and honor bound to defend the cleansed lands. To make sure they stay cleansed. For generations the taint has grown like a malignant cancer, spreading slowly testing bounds. I have forced it back as far as I can hold. Why in Heaven's name should I desert my post?" _And contribute to the planets pain I think not!_ "You would fight along side Avalanche, then?" he asked her as if she had spoke. Keyala was startled that he had heard her. "No, I wouldn't. I can't say I like Shinra, present company excluded, but I don't like Avalanche either. They don't give a crap who or what gets in their way, which they would if they really believed what they preached. When I give my loyalty to someone or something I give one hundred percent. My loyalty and my pride belong to my clan Damathrua and Rangers even if I may be the last of them. You know how stubborn I am. If need be I would stupid enough to fight both at the same time if my duty called for it." Sephiroth paused, "And you really would, wouldn't you. Stay out here; you're too strong to remain unallied anywhere other than out on the back end of beyond." _So matter of fact, she really feels she has nothing to prove to anyone. Small wonder we nearly killed each other._

The monster attacked them just as the paths had cleared enough to travel. The baby monsters had progressed from annoying to dangerous as the two of them had hunted before the storm but this creature was in a whole other ballpark. The battle raged for hours. Each time either thought he or she had struck a killing blow to one of the monster's weak spots it healed itself. Battered and bleeding Sephiroth called to Keyala "Together." "Yes," she replied softly, weakened from blood loss. This would be her last charge one way or the other, both of them were out of potions, ethers, elixers and their MP levels were to low to use the even the Cure1 spell. Summoning the last reserves they attacked in unison killing both parts of the monster in a spectacular double limit break. They piled the thing on a pyre and watched it burn to ashes. Then they limped back to the village supporting each other.

"I told you they'd be back," Liz told the young former SOLDIER. His wound had proved too severe for him to continue in SOLDIER. He had decided he would use his severance to set up a weapon shop in Junon. He would be back in Midgar only long enough to fill out all the paperwork.

"Ok, kid, you were right," he told her. Liz could be a little annoying at times but at least she wasn't scared of him or the MPs as about half the village was. "I bet that monster didn't stand a chance." _Egad, they're both so badly banged up. Talk about leveling up the hard way._

Sephiroth stayed in the town and slept for about a day and a half before leaving fully recovered. He and Keyala said a private goodbye but in public they were distant; they did put aside their previous hostility. They had realized in the waystation that what had happened was best kept under wraps. Although Keyala was certainly strong enough to deal with any enemy of his that got the bright idea to go after Sephiroth's lover would be easer than attacking him but it wasn't something she wanted to have to deal with.

Intuition and Foresight weren't Keyala's strongest points but like all Ke'etria she had them. The night after the Shinra left her premonition went off wakening her from a sound sleep. She mustn't be here. She must leave. She should go on a walkabout and see the world. The land would be fine. Do not worry about that, we can care for it for a few years. But you must be away when the Turks come. Keyala shuddered. "The continuum" she breathed. "Looks like I have my marching orders. But why? I have a bad feeling about this." The following morning she informed the mayor that the town was safe and that she was going on a walkabout. She shut up her house wished Liz and her family good bye and then set off. Not three miles down the road the ground opened up beneath her and she plummeted into the Lifestream. Only her previous touch with the continuum kept her sane preventing brain overload. She learned many things and forgot many things, she was part of everything and apart from it all. When she washed up in Mideel she knew she was pregnant and it showed. About seven months later she gave birth to a daughter, who she named Kira. Her extended dunk in the Lifestream had one lasting side effect; both her eyes and the eyes of her child glowed like the Mako eyes of those who belonged to SOLDIER. She considered finding Sephiroth and letting him know that she was pregnant but something held her back. She found something that reminded her of the taint in the younger SOLDIER's blood in the Lifestream. And she feared the Shinra Science Department. She did not want them to know that a child by her and Sephiroth had been born with Mako eyes. So she did not search out her bondmate.

When the child was three she returned home. When asked about Kira she said the child's age was two. Apparently about three months after the monster incident, true to her instinct the Turks showed up looking for the female guide who spent several weeks alone with the great Sephiroth. After a period of adjustment she began to train Liz again who quickly progressed from the staff to the glave. Every thing was normal for about four years. Liz, now 12, had just come into her powers, which for Ke'etria coincides with the first menstruation. Keyala had just taught her the basics of shielding her mind from attack and grounding into the continuum, when she felt something inside shift and snap. She saw a flash of Nibelheim burning.

"Liz," She snapped. "What ever happens you must guard my daughter until she fully comes into her powers. Swear it!"

"But I…" Liz began.

"You must!" Keyala said "Her true age is 7 not 6."

"Ok," Liz said hesitantly.

"Swear it that you will protect her with you life if need be!"

"I, Liz Damathrua, swear I will protect my cousin Kira Damathrua with my glave and with my life." No sooner had the words left her mouth was Keyala gone. Liz had a really bad feeling; a premonition that this was going to be the last time she saw her cousin-sister as he called Keyala.

Deep in her heart Keyala knew that she should have gone to her bondmate before Kira was born, but she didn't. "And now it's come back to bite me in the ass," she muttered sprinting, praying that she wasn't too late. She ran with out tiring to Nibelheim. Her first glance matched her vision; Nibelheim burning. From the heavily tainted land on Mt. Nibel she heard a dark voice crow triumphantly: _You're too late, Sephiroth is mine now. I am Jenova, the calamity from the skies._ Parrying a blow she sensed more than saw she blocked Masamune and turned to face Sephiroth. One look at his eyes, now silted, told her all she needed to know. Her former lover was mad, totally, _willingly,_ in the thrall of Jenova and lost to her for this turn of the wheel. Keyala felt her power surge and his surge in response. _He's blocked from me but the cord is not cut_. She realized as she counter attacked. _If he kills me all he dose is reinforce Jenova's hold on him. But if I kill him I die. Can I even do that? I don't think I can. But I can give my lifeblood and last breath to Kira's shields. As long as he can't find her there's hope. If I ever get my hands around Jenova's neck I will be one happy woman._ "Long time no see," she grunted. "All you humans are traitors to the planet!" he hissed. "Die!!" Keyala dodged the attack effortlessly. "I am Ke'et, torrath." She said flatly. "My people gave their life's blood and their dying breath to seal the Calamity from the Skies, Heaven's Dark Harbinger, this Jenova, The Blood Traitor, Kinslayer, Bane of the three peoples, Fall of House Damathrua, The Bitch That Won't Fucking Stay Dead. Long time ago on another world she killed all her bondmate and all her children all but twin baby girls who their eldest sib's sacrificed their lives to protect. I am the direct descendent of that house. And, Darling, so are you." _I think_

"You lie about Mother," Sephiroth growled. He brought Masamune down on her glave shattering the staff, and delivering a mortal blow. Keyala fell, aware of him standing over her. Was it a trick of her eyes or did regret flash across his features. If so it was gone before she could be sure. _No wonder she wanted us apart she's destined to be defeated by her own blood, if we were together she's have be destroyed or at least resealed_. "You know, Sephiroth," she coughed as her body failed and as he turned away from her. "You're the only man I'd ever loved, and darned if I don't love you still." Gathering the last of her energy she touched the continuum and poured her life's energy into a shield around her daughter and sealed the spell with the blood that dripped from her chest. Sephiroth and Jenova would have been shocked to see her body disintegrate in silver leaving behind her broken glave and bloody cloak, had they stuck around to watch.

Liz woke up in a cold sweat. "Keyala!" she wailed, feeling her cousin die through the continuum and seeing her ghost flash at the foot of her bed. "Remember your oath," the specter whispered sadly then disintegrated. In the room next door she heard Kira wail "Mom! Nooooo!"

Epilogue

Liz made her way to Nibelheim, dodging monsters and Shinra Turks. On a ridge outside the town her worst fear was confirmed. The town was in ashes and Keyala's glave was lying broken on her blood stained cape. "A Ke'etria's chosen weapon only breaks when she is defeated in death," she recited numbly. "Her weapon brakes and she joins the continuum, leaving nothing behind but her weapon and occasionally her blood stained cloak." Reverently she picked up the cloak and glave halves and went home. She burned the cloak on the day and a half hike back home but she wrapped the broken glave in her own cloak and stored at the bottom of a trunk that Keyala had willed to her daughter when she came of age. She wasn't too surprised when her parents decided to move to Midgar before school started in the fall. Her life began to pick up when she met two girls, Lea and Rae, on her first day of class whose auras burned silver to her inner eye. The three soon became fast friends.


End file.
